214 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I4I 



Order ARANEIDA 



Many observations of spiders feeding on cockroaches are quite 

 general, and many observers have failed to identify either the spider 

 or its prey. Belt (1874) stated that "the cockroaches that infest 

 houses in the tropics .... have numerous enemies — birds, rats, 

 scorpions, and spiders." When Belt tried to drive a cockroach toward 

 a large cockroach-eating spider, the insect rushed away from him until 

 it came within a foot of the spider when it would double back never 

 advancing nearer. 



Beebe (1925) watched a giant "wood roach," which was in the 

 grasp of a 2-inch ctenid spider, fly through the window of his British 

 Guiana laboratory. While the spider ate the cockroach, the insect gave 

 birth to 51 nymphs. Sonan (1924) reported that large gray spiders 

 devour nymphs and adults of Periplaneta americana and P. austra- 

 lasiae in Formosa ; this spider also occurs on Hiyakejima Island and 

 Okinawa. Passmore (1936), who has produced some excellent photo- 

 graphs of tarantulas, stated that they destroy cockroaches. Ran 

 (1940) stated that American and oriental cockroaches were the 

 principal item of diet of a friend's pet tarantula for several years. 

 Kaston (personal communication, 1953) successfully fed a tarantula 

 with Periplaneta americana. 



Bristowe (1941) found that the British species of Ecfobiiis are 

 readily accepted by Xysticus, Cluhiona, Drassodes, Zelotes, Tarantula, 

 and the web-builders Ciniflo and Aranea. The British domestic cock- 

 roaches were accepted by Tegenaria and Ciniflo, spiders large enough 

 to overpower them, and were useful as food for tropical avicularids, 

 ctenids, and sparassids in captivity. 



Family THERAPHOSIDAE 

 Avicularia avicularia (Linnaeus) and Avicularia sp. ? 



Common name. — Bird-eating spider. 



Natural prey. — Periplaneta americana, Trinidad (Main, 1924, 

 1930) : The remains of the host were compressed into globular form 

 by the spider after it had extracted the nutritive parts. 



Phormictopus cancerides (Latreille) 

 Experimental prey. — Cockroach, West Indies (Wolcott, 1953). 



